He was an equal opportunity swindler (But you wouldn’t know that according to the media. — Ed.).
by Micheal Russnow
So, why is it a more onerous “desecration of God’s name and theJewish people who worship God,” as Rabbi Elliot Dorff of the AmericanJewish University in Los Angeles said. Would it be less a sacrilege ifMadoff (picture, right) had done the same to a strictly gentile clientele?
While it’s incredibly sad and a lot of attention has been focused onthe Jewish people who were ripped off, how about non-Jews likeRene-Thierry Magon de la Villehuchet of Access International Advisors,a financial manager so upset that he committed suicide in his Manhattanoffice. Or one of his gentile clients, Liliane Bettencourt, reportedlyFrance’s richest woman. Not to mention churchgoer Nicola Horlick, headof Britain’s Bramdean Alternatives? Or the organizations andinstitutions, which have lost a combined $22 billion, such as:
– Fairfield Greenwich Advisors, $7.50 billion
– Tremont Capital Management, $3.30 billion
– Banco Santander, $2.87 billion
– Bank Medici, $2.10 billion
– Ascot Partners, $1.80 billion
– Access International Advisors, $1.40 billion
– Fortis, $1.35 billion
– Union Bancaire Privee, $1.00 billion
– HSBC, $1.00 billion
Plus large companies, which lost substantial amounts such as theRoyal Bank of Scotland, Nomura Holdings, BNP Paribas or Aozora Bank.It’s hard to believe that all these entities are owned by Jews nor thatit would somehow be more disgusting were they so.
However, Rabbi Jonathan Klein of the Progressive Jewish alliance told the Los Angeles Times“Madoff does not represent the Jewish people, not even remotely.” Therabbi presumably never heard of folks like Meyer Lansky and BugsySiegel.